Worshiping Christ through Food

independence

A little over a year ago, my now-husband and I went out to dinner. When we had finished our meal, we asked our waiter for the check and were shocked to learn that someone, a stranger, had picked up our tab. What a blessing! Stunned but feeling so blessed, we finished our drinks, put on our coats and left the restaurant. (Then we went back to his apartment and got engaged, but that’s beside the point :P) What we didn’t do was pay the check a second time.

In this season of Lent, preparing for Easter, we focus on our need for God, our humanity and brokenness. We are reminded that “from dust you come, and to dust you will return.” We put ourselves into our own desert, committing to sacrificing something we enjoy (like meat, or fat, or Facebook or sweets). At my church, we are studying the Seven Deadly Sins. We spend the 40 days before Easter focusing on our own broken humanity. This prepares us for Easter by helping us recognize our need for the sacrifice He made on the cross, helping us to appreciate and internalize His salvation.

But what I’ve come to realize is that, for many, believers and non-believers alike, Lent lasts all year. Continue reading →

Let’s talk about one of my most favorite blessings: coffee. Its bittersweet ebony nectar brings a beautiful calm to my mornings (and afternoons and evenings and…) and I am so thankful that coffee is widely available in this day and age.

Fortunately for me, I am not truly addicted (anymore, at least) to caffeine like most Americans and I can function completely normally without my morning coffee. But a morning coffee is a signal of a healthy morning routine for me. As an introvert, I’m desperate for a quiet morning with minimal human interaction and this prepares me for the coming day. A cup of coffee and my book for twenty or thirty minutes is a perfect and calming start to my day. So it should be no surprise that a prayer over coffee is a pretty frequent thing; quiet time and Bible reading is usually accompanied by a cup of the glorious brew. But despite all this, despite my love for a private cup o’ joe, I don’t believe in coffee as an independent activity.

I'm just a girl trying to use her passions to celebrate and glorify Christ, bringing the sacred into the secular, and never, ever, allowing a meal to go without a healthy dose of flavor! Soli Deo Gloria